Alleged ATM fraudsters bought luxury home and cars with skimmed funds

A Pymble couple who allegedly bankrolled multiple investment properties and luxury cars with at least $2.9 million allegedly skimmed from an ATM in the Rozelle supermarket they operated may face more charges.

Yi Zhou Fan, who also goes by Edward, was arrested in October last year after police raided the Rozelle Foodworks that his mother leased for him to operate with his estranged wife Li Lou.

The alleged $2.9 million skimmed from an ATM is believed to have paid for a Pymble home with tennis court and pool.

During the dramatic raids, investigators allegedly found $1 million in cash in a locked room inside the shop, a camera secretly attached to the ATM plus a card-skimming machine inside the ATM connected to a laptop to record card details. The Crown prosecutor called the alleged scam "clever, prolific and determined" during an unsuccessful application for bail in the Supreme Court last week.

Police say that card details were saved onto the laptop and transferred to blank cards, allowing Mr Fan and Ms Lou to allegedly go to any ATM and withdraw cash with the pin code learnt from the video recordings of unsuspecting customers.

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The "fraud of significant proportions" saw $2.9 million stolen from customers' banks "on the endeavours of the applicant and his wife", the prosecutor said.

The Supreme Court heard that police found 1,300 card numbers and pin codes on the computer, plus Mr Fan's DNA on a camera filming the ATM pin pad.

The ATM is rented from its parent company by Mr Fan's mother, Mrs Chen. The court was told that police suspect the "unidentified" female DNA found on the tape attaching the card reader to the ATM belongs to Mrs Chen. Mrs Chen has not been charged with any offences.

The alleged $2.9 million skimmed from an ATM is believed to have also paid for a Porsche.Credit:Fairfax Media

One neighbouring shop owner said this week: "We all wondered how they survived, because it was always very quiet in there and it's tough along this street."

Justice Lucy McCallum denied Mr Fan's bail application to live with his mother on the basis that she "ignored" his "significant asset base".

Mr Fan, who the court heard has convictions for fraud from 2005, 2012 and 2014, may "risk temptation to going back to the game he knows", said Justice McCallum.

Mr Fan and his wife lived with their three privately educated children in a five-bedroom home at Pymble named Anglyn that he bought in 2014 for $1.7 million.

Neighbours say that the couple picked up and left the home, which boasts a full-size tennis court and a swimming pool, at the end of last year.

"It was really weird. They just went out one day and didn't come back."

Mr Fan and his partner Li Lou, who the court heard first caught police attention through her "suspicious behaviour" outside a bank, also own investment properties in Burwood and Punchbowl.

In a raid on Anglyn following Mr Fan's arrest, police also allegedly found contracts for properties in New Zealand and China, a 7 Series BMW, a Nissan Patrol, a Porsche 4WD and a $10,000 deposit for another Porsche.

The court heard that police believe that Mr Fan may have been defrauding a second ATM, because of the 1300 cards that were defrauded, only 85% of them had been used in the store's ATM.

Mr Fan will return to court on August 14 on charges of dealing with proceeds of crime over $1 million, possessing equipment to make a false document and committing an unauthorised function.

Ms Lou also faces 30 charges relating to the alleged fraud, including nine charges of dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception, three counts of dealing with proceeds of crime and other charges relating to possessing identificating data to commit an indictable offence.

She was granted bail and will also return to court on August 14.

The current owners of the supermarket are not accused of any crime and are in no way affiliated with the alleged fraud.